


equilibrium

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, F/M, Het, Rare Pair, Romance, Speculation for episode 3.12, based on promo pics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 17:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9618044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Caitlin is rattled and needs to regain her equilibrium. Joe unwittingly helps.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I like this one but getting it out under the wire before its Jossed completely tonight. Started life as a comment fic fill but didn't really stick to the prompt.

Once Iris is stable, once she and Barry are holding hands and staring into one another's eyes, Caitlin doesn't even bother to make any excuses, just slips out of the medbay without a word. She tells herself that it's because they wouldn't hear her anyway - they only have eyes for each other - but in reality, she knows it's because she wants to find a mirror. It's crazy, she knows, but she needs to see for herself that any traces of Killer Frost are nowhere to be seen, that her eyes are once more brown, that there are no streaks of white through her hair. She balls her hands into fists as she walks, shocked at how cold they are and maybe it's because of that, rather than the fact she's lost in thought, that makes her jump when a warm hand closes around her wrist. 

She spins around on her heels, finds herself staring into Joe's eyes, shaken and relieved and warm all at once. 

 

Her mouth goes dry and her hands begin to shake in earnest, because it's the first time she's seen him, really seen him, since Iris had been attacked. Even then, she hasn't spoken to him properly because she was at Iris's bedside, frantically trying to save her and she'd only been barely away if his presence as he watched them both, unable to take his eyes of them. He'd seen everything, she realises now, and she bites her lip at what he might say, what he might think. After everything, the secrets, the lies, they had finally been getting back to normal, she had finally been getting back to normal and now...

She'd let Killer Frost out to play and she hadn't thought twice about it. 

"Joe..." she begins but he doesn't let her finish. Instead those warm hands move to cup her cheeks and he looks down at her with such tenderness on her face that she almost can't stand it. 

"You just saved my daughter's life," he tells her, like she hadn't been there. "And I know..." He stops, shakes his head. "Sweetheart, what it could have cost you..."

"Would be nothing compared to what it would have cost if I hadn't done it." She says it and she means it, would do it all over again in a heartbeat if it meant saving Iris's life. 

Joe makes a sound that's somewhere between a laugh and a sob and then he's not saying anything anymore. Instead he's pulling her close to him, pressing his lips to hers, letting his actions say what his words can't. It's everything Caitlin didn't know she needed and she wraps her arms around her neck as she deepens the kiss, grateful for the reminder that no matter what happens, they're in this together. 

He kisses her until she's breathless and when he pulls way, they're both breathing hard. Joe rests his forehead against hers, whispers, "I need to get in there," and she nods, understands completely. "Don't go anywhere, OK?"

She smiles as she touches his cheek. "I'm staying right here," she promises and he kisses her again, quickly this time, before he makes tracks for the medbay. 

Caitlin heads back there too, no longer needing the mirror's reassurance. Not when one short conversation has done the job of restoring her equilibrium.


End file.
